Freeway jams, photochemical smog and a UCLA baseball victory.
It was just another day in Los Angeles.
Top-ranked UCLA launched five home runs en route to Tuesday’s 12-7 baseball victory over Hawaii at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. The Bruins improved to 37-3. The Rainbow Warriors are 20-16 heading into Friday’s opener of a three-game road series against seventh-ranked Oregon State.
In the first meeting between the teams since 2013, the Rainbow Warriors out-hit the Bruins 12-11 and did not commit an error. But the Bruins separated with seven extra-base hits that resulted in nine runs.
“A lot of positives to be taken from this,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “That’s the No. 1 team in the nation on the road, and doing a lot of great things offensively.”
The Rainbow Warriors had taken a 1-0 lead on Ben Zeigler-Namoa’s sacrifice fly in the first inning.
But the Bruins did not waste time in responding. UCLA left fielder Dean West tied it with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first.
Four batters later, Will Gasparino crushed a 1-0 pitch from Brody Martin-Grudzielanek over the fence in left for a grand slam and 5-1 lead.
Gasparino, whose father is a vice president of operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers, added a solo home run in the eighth.
UH outfielder Kamana Nahaku hit a bases-empty homer to close the ’Bows to 6-5 in the fifth. It was Nahaku’s first home run of the year after hitting 10 last season.
“The air could have gone out of our sails very easily when they came back and threw the dagger in the first,” Hill said. “It didn’t affect us. Great energy. Stayed with it.”
But Roch Cholowsky, projected to be the No. 1 selectiton in this year’s MLB draft, smacked a homer for a 7-5 lead in the fourth.
Aiden Aguaya’s two-run double provided insurance in the fifth.
The ’Bows cut the deficit to 9-7 in the sixth inning. Zeigler-Namoa drew a one-out walk and then to second on Tate Shimao’s single to left. Draven Nushida followed with a run-scoring single. One out later, Mana Lau Kong brought home Shimao with an RBI single to right.
“I’m proud of our guys for the way they responded time and time again, inning by inning,” Hill said.
But in the bottom of the sixth, the Bruins restored the margin to four runs. Mulivai Levu had a run-scoring single and Roman Martin contributed a sacrifice fly.
“They’re No. 1 in the country for a reason,” Hill said. “And 21-0 in the Big Ten for a reason. They only lost three games all year. Yeah, the opponent was good. But there were a lot of positives from us. Double-digit hits against a quality pitching staff when early in the year it was tough for us to score runs.”
Nahaku, Nushida, Lau Kong and Jake Redding each had two hits for the ’Bows. Lau Kong, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound freshman from ‘Iolani School, started the year hitting .188. He is 6-for-11 (.545) in the past three games. And Nushida, who has played both corner outfield positions, took a turn as a second baseman against UCLA.
Hill also found a bright spot in Martin-Grudzielanek’s difficult start. After relinquishing the grand slam, he struck out the next two batters.
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond what happens to you,” Hill said. “I thought Brody did a great job (responding). It was a great learning experience for him. And I think he grew a lot out of that outing.”
